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JazzMixingwithWaves|StephenKelly

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Jazz Mixing With Waves

OCTOBER 31, 2012

MIXING ENGINEER, TUTORIALS, WAVES STREET TEAM

4 COMMENTS

Following on from the recent Mixing Jazz with Waves webinar, Id like to share how I
recently approached a jazz mix and the various Waves plugins I used to mix the track.
First of all, Wicked Knee are Steven Bernstein on trumpets, Curtis Fowlkes on
trombone, Marcus Rojas on tuba, and Billy Martin from Medeski Martin & Wood on
drums and percussion. You can take a listen to the track and then Ill explain what I did.

Oops, we couldn't find that track.

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As this was a jazz mix, I wanted to stay away from compression and extensive effects
and focus on volume automation, equalization and use of the stereo field to shape my
sound.

WAVES STREET TEAM MEMBER

Once I had roughly balanced all the levels in the mix and panned the various tracks the
way I liked them, I then listened back to see if there were any problematic or uneven
sections and attenuated those further with automation. Why did I focus so much on
volume automation at this stage?
I was only using gentle compression on the drums and none at all on the
individual instrument tracks.
With this approach, there is much less work for compressors to do.
With that part of the mixing process complete, I started mixing the drums. When the
drums sounded nicely balanced, I moved on to adding the tuba, trombone and trumpet.
From there, I worked to create a polished sound with final EQ, buss EFX sends and
automation on the individual tracks.

FOLLOW ME!

Once finished at a micro level, these tracks fed their relative busses (Music, Drums,
Bass, EFX) and finally the stereo buss. As there were not an extensive amount of
tracks in the session, I chose to leave everything unmuted and not solo any elements. I
think that was a fundamental step in creating an accurate representation of a jazz
sound.
The main plugins I used on the mix were the Waves Renaissance Equalizer and
Renaissance Compressor.

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TOPICS

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REQ and RCompressor are part of the

Assistant Dubbing Mixer

Waves Renaissance Maxx Bundle

Credits
Dialogue Mixing
Dubbing Mixer
Foley

Next, Ill outline how I used the plugins in the track:

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Music Composition

Renaissance Equalizer

Music Production
Sound Design
Sound Editor
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VO Recording
Waves
Waves Street Team

Settings do not reflect those used in the track

Kick Drum
I used corrective EQ to cut frequencies before compression with the REQ 4:
High-pass filter at 30Hz
8dB cut at around 700Hz
3dB cut at 2kHz
4dB high shelf cut at 10kHz
Post-compression I used the REQ 2 to add a little 50Hz and remove some 80Hz.

Snare
High pass filter at 100Hz.
Cut 2-3dB at 950Hz.
I then added in some 5kHz post-compression with the REQ 2.

Toms
6dB boost at 250Hz
9dB cut at 900Hz
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4dB boost at 6kHz

Floor Tom
Low shelf at 80Hz
2.5dB boost at 240Hz
8db cut at 650Hz
3.5dB boost at 4.7kHz

Overhead and Side

Ther Overhead and Side mics were high passed at between 1-2kHz respectively and
had the required frequencies boosted in the high frequencies using the REQ. I used no
compression on either of these mics.

Front
The Front mic was very heavily EQd with REQ and there was a high shelf boost added
for some top end.

Tuba
Low shelf roll off at 34Hz
5dB boost at 90Hz
Narrow cut of 4db at 640Hz
High shelf roll off of 3db at 4kHz

Trombone
Low shelf roll off at 80Hz
6dB boost at 180Hz
5dB cut at 660Hz
5dB high shelf roll off at 6kHz
During the final stages of the mix, I also added a separate REQ 2 to add 3dB at 295Hz
and 2.5dB at 6.5kHz.

Trumpet
8dB low shelf roll off at 144Hz
High shelf 5dB roll off at 10kHz
Again during the final stages of the mix, I added another REQ 2 and boosted 1.3kHz by
5dB and 11kHz by 3dB.
The delay track was affected in the same way but without the separate EQ boosting
additional frequencies.

Renaissance Compressor

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Settings do not reflect those used in the track

Kick Drum
4:1 ratio taking off at most 3dB at peak.
Snare
2:1 ratio to attenuate an absolute maximum of 2-3dB at peak.
Front
I used the CLA 76 Bluey to decrease the influence of the kick on this element.

Buss Effects

Snare Reverb

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Settings do not reflect those used in the track

Renassance Reverb with a medium room setting. I didnt send a huge amount of the
signal to this buss, just enough for my taste!

Parallel Compression

Settings do not reflect those used in the track

The CLA-76 and Puigtec EQP-1A were used as my chains on 2 separate busses for
kick and snare parallel compression.

Settings do not reflect those used in the track

Kick settings:
CLA 76 Blacky ratio of 6:1 attenuating 1dB sparingly in places.
Puigtec EQP-1A added a small amount of 60hZ.
Snare settings:
CLA 76 Blacky ratio of 4:1 attenuating 3dB.
Puigtec EQP-1A adding a small boost at 100Hz.

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Music Buss

Settings do not reflect those used in the track

The music buss had an instance of Waves Center on it to help emphasize the low
frequencies of the drums and tuba in the center and move some of the low frequencies
of the trombone and trumpet to the sides. The high frequencies were also slightly
boosted at the sides, which further adds to the clearing out the middle effect.
I also used the CLA-76 Bluey compressor to just lightly affect the Music with a 4:1
ratio, slow attack and release. This compressor attenuated 1-2dB at only a few points
in the mix.

Drum Buss
On the drum buss, I cut 6dB at 67Hz with the REQ and 7dB at 14.5kHz. I used a narrow
Q for both these cuts. The CLA-76 Bluey compressor with a 4:1 ratio was then used
to attenuate a maximum of 3dB.

Stereo Buss

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Settings do not reflect those used in the track

The L2 Ultramaximizer is my go to plugin on the stereo buss. For this track, I set the
threshold so that it just touches the mix taking off at the very most 3dB at the
loudest parts of the track.
So, thats it thats how approached this particular jazz mix. If you like what you hear,
please let me know about it!
What way do you approach a mix? Do you have a set formula or workflow, or do
things change with every mix?
What plugins do you use when mixing jazz?
Leave a reply below and add your voice to the conversation!

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Tags: billy martin engineer jazz mix mixing engineer renaissance compressor
renaissance equalizer stephen kelly waves street team wicked knee

4 comments

Ole Klein

says:

NOVEMBER 2, 2012 AT 7:13 AM

Hi Stephen
Nice article thx.
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I use CLA comp, Softube eq and Relab reverb when mixing Jazz and some Flux on
the buss.
Normally I would make the drumkit sound good in the overhead and then mix in
kick and snare.
Could you explain a little further how you do parallel comp on kick and snare?
Best Regards
Ole
Reply

Stephen Kelly

says:

NOVEMBER 2, 2012 AT 2:10 PM

Thanks Ole,
My parallel compression chains vary from mix to mix, but on this one I used the
CLA-76 and Puigtec EQP-1A.
I use two separate busses for kick and snare parallel compression. The kick(s)
are sent to one buss and snare(s) to another. On each of these busses there are
instances of the CLA-76 and Puigtec EQP-1A.
The precise settings are listed above. The send level depends on the mix and
your particular taste.
I will be releasing more material soon on parallel compression.
Is there something in particular you wanted to know?
-Stephen
Reply

Graeme

says:

NOVEMBER 4, 2012 AT 8:03 PM

Thanks for sharing the info.

I took part in that comp also!
Reply

Stephen Kelly

says:

NOVEMBER 7, 2012 AT 4:11 PM

Best of luck with it Graeme!

Reply

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